Wrapping Up Some Works in Progress

Whoo- Hoo! Am I ever glad to be back here with you all. I had a busy weekend, with my second/last craft show of the season on Saturday. It was a great little show, only 15 vendors at this super cool coffee shop/studio space near where I live. I really enjoy being able to interact a bit more with people and to talk about my work with them. One thing that has become HUGELY clear is that I do a lot better at selling my book than I do my artwork in this kind of face to face venue. I think it's because if I sense someone's interested in knowing how to do wire work, then I get all animated and excited and can't wait to answer any questions they have about the medium. I do love wire. And I do have a wee bit of a fabric obsession, so it really feels natural and exciting to share my love of these through the book, and I think people sense that.

At the sale I was able to use my downtime pretty productively and finished a cuff and a couple of more stars for the garland. So now I can give you an idea of what it would look like hanging in front of a window. I also got started on a scarf I'm knitting for my son. It's beautiful painted looking yarn that made up wonderfully. I have that blocking right now. Now on to some cleaning and then we're going to do some decorating. I really haven't done much around the house yet, and my 5-yr.old just LOVES decorating so we're going to make that a priority this week.

How about you? Have you started/finished any creative projects lately? Have you been able to use those artistic abilities in your home yet? I'd love to know where you are all at and what you've been up to- so please, SHARE!!!

Winter Woodland Chandelier How To

Welcome to Day Three of our 'Tis the Season week of posts celebrating the holiday season with lots and lots of decorating ideas. We kicked off the week with a trend report of several holiday trends and today we're playing around with the Winter Woodland trend. Forests, and all they hold from animals to mushrooms, even just wood grains have been hot for the last year or so. Incorporating these elements into your holiday decorating is fun and SUPER easy to do. And if you're lucky enough to have access, many of the supplies can be found out of doors. Usually when I want to create something from natural materials I'll go outside and grab the stuff from the yard. But with a thick coat of white snow covering everything outside I looked inside for things on hand (birch branches) and then picked up a few things from the craft store too. The colors of this trend can vary, but again, white, red, and green seem to dominate. But instead of taking the shape of peppermint candies, the colors come in the form of berry sprigs, the silvery white of birch branches, the rich browns of pine cones, and the deep green of evergreens.

Today's how-to is just an example of how I might decorate with natural elements. I'm demonstrating how to decorate your chandelier, but knowing that many of you might not have a chandelier quite like mine, I want to assure you that you can take these same elements and create a vignette with them, or centerpiece for your table. These natural elements added to your wreath really make a beautiful and striking outdoor design as well. SO, take a look and then give it a try!

How To Give your Chandelier A Winter Woodland Make-Over for the Holidays

Tools and Materials:
4 birch branches about 15"long
Several smaller birch sticks
1 stem of artificial red berries
A handful of pinecones (varied sizes)
Bird's nest
Mixed Evergreens (I just took apart the door swag from yesterday's vignette)
Raffia or string
Scissors
Something to cut your evergreens into pieces
Wire cutter

Step One: Insert your birch branches one at a time into the arms of your chandelier. One on each side and intersecting with each other to form a square.

Step Two: Using a ratchet pruner or other tool, cut your evergreens apart in lengths that will fit your chandelier. Lay on top of the birch branches.Then add your small birch branches on top of these and if you can angle them so they kind of stick out (either on top or at the sides) that gives your design some extra depth.I like how these really give the design a wild, natural look.

Step Three:Using your wire cutter, cut your artificial berry branch into 2 or 3 pieces. Insert a larger piece of the berry branch up through the bottom center of the design.You should be able to stick it in at an angle and let it rest on the birch branches. If you need to you can use a twist tie and wire the branch to your chandelier. Take your smaller pieces of berry branch and insert into top of the arrangement .

Step Four: Place your bird nest into the center of your display, if possible.Then, using your raffia or string, wrap around your pine cone's bottom, between layers of pine cone.Tie as tight as possible and repeat with 2-4 more pine cones.

Step Five: Tie your pine cone strings to the chandelier's center and allow to hang at different lengths. If you like you can use an extra long piece of raffia and tie it to the pine cone about 5-6 inches from end. This allows extra raffia to dangle with your pine
cone which looks pretty. :)


Don't forget to join us tomorrow for more ideas to help put you into the holiday groove. Yay! I'd love to know more about what you're doing to decorate this holiday season, what you've liked best of the different ideas so far, and if you have any questions about the how-to or tutorials. So Please Leave a Comment!